I Seem To Be On A Green Kick...

Ok, so remember a few weeks ago when I said I was working on finishing up old projects?  Well, it didn't last long, and here I am right smack in the middle of a new one.  I had forgotten that months ago I had signed up for a quilt class here, to make this quilt.  I went a bit more monochromatic with my color scheme, which I am honestly on the fence about.  Mostly I like it - this morning as I was walking to the train station the sun was dappling the trees in such a manner that it reminded me of this project - but: I have to confess that I am jealous of my classmates' more raucous, colorful creations.  I am already thinking about doing another one in more funky colors.

The hardest part of this project is lining up the blocks in a way that you don't have clusters of strips in the same color too near each other.  I think it may be more difficult in a colorway like this, because there's no obvious bright pink screaming "move me!".  It's harder for me to see any clumping of colors, particularly with the dark ones.  Currently, the blocks are pinned to a flannel sheet that is tacked to my living room wall (where, hopefully, the finished quilt will hang).  I find myself staring at the blocks, and then suddenly my eye will catch two leaf prints touching, or two bright greens too close.  At some point, though (as in, before next week's class!), I'm going to have to just suck it up and sew them together.  (Let me just add that last night, roughly around midnight as I was fussing about with block placement, it became clear to me that - much like everything else in my life - I am WAY overthinking this.)  And I'm also anticipating the quilting part - I'd like to find a nice leaf pattern...will I be brave and try to machine quilt it, or will I spend the next six months hand quilting it?  Decisions, decisions...

Finally, I must say that I'm surprised at how much I've enjoyed the class.  I've quilted for 15 years now, and never before took a formal class.  I learned by watching my grandmother and through my own trial-and-error using various books and magazines.  I'm a little shy about having people observe me - both my process and my output - but everyone seems very friendly, and I like the company (five other women, mostly my mom's age).  Since I don't have any "quilting" friends, it's nice to be around people who carry seam rippers in their pockets and know their way around a cutting board, not to mention people who completely understand having a monthly fabric budget.